Question

Consider two communities. In one community, ten families have incomes of $100,000 each and ten families have incomes of $20,000 each. In the other community, ten families have incomes of $200,000 each and ten families have incomes of $22,000 each.
a) In which community is the distribution of income more unequal?
b) In which community is the problem of poverty likely to be worse?
c) Which distribution of income would Rawls prefer? Explain.
d) Which distribution of income do you prefer? Explain.
e) Why might someone have the opposite preference?

Answer 1

Answer:

In the second community because the gap is wider between the 2 income groups. Community 1 has an income gap of $80,000 (100,000 - 20,000) while community 2 has an income gap of $178,000 (200,000 - 22,000)

Explanation:

a) In which community is the distribution of income more unequal?

In the second community because the gap is wider between the 2 income groups. Community 1 has an income gap of 80,000 (100,000 - 20,000) while community 2 has an income gap of 178,000 (200,000 - 22,000)

b) In which community is the problem of poverty likely to be worse?

In the first community because average income is smaller which is $60,000 [(100,000 + 20,000) / 2] compared to community 2 of $111,000 [(200,000 +22,000) /2]

c) Which distribution of income would Rawls prefer? Explain.

Rawls would prefer the second income distribution if the larger income are tied to positions that are open to all, and as long as basic liberties existed

d) Which distribution of income do you prefer? Explain.

I would prefer the second because the average income is higher and in the event of income redistribution, every family will be averagely better off than in the first community

e) Why might someone have the opposite preference?

Some may prefer community one because of lower income gap between the rich and the poor.